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Stiff challenges ahead for Argos, says Bob Nicholson

Argonauts president weighs in on the team’s disappointing 2011 season and the year to come, as Toronto prepares to host the 100th Grey Cup.

Argos president and CEO Bob Nicholson expects a big boost next year from hosting the 100th Grey Cup, but acknowledges the team faces major challenges in becoming more competitive.

By Chris ZelkovichSports Reporter

Fri., Nov. 4, 2011

Toronto Argonauts president Bob Nicholson faces some difficult decisions as the team tries to bounce back from a 6-12 season and prepares to host the 100th Grey Cup. He sat down with the Star to address those issues.

How would you assess 2011?

Clearly, it was a disappointment. We felt we had made some good strides last year and we were clearly looking to build on those. Unfortunately, we took a step back this year. It’s something for us to pause and reflect on — how we’re going to improve to build a successful franchise, not only for 2012, but a base that will allow us to be a successful franchise for years to come.

Attendance was down for the fourth straight year. How are you addressing that?

I haven’t really analyzed the data, but clearly we were down this year. That was disappointing, but it was also the product of us getting off to a very slow start. Our schedule was back-loaded with home dates and at a time when that should have been a positive for us and a playoff run, we were already almost out of the playoffs. That didn’t help us in selling the fall games.

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Are the Toronto Argonauts becoming irrelevant, as some have suggested?

This is a tough marketplace to compete in. First and foremost, we have to have a credible football program. We clearly have some challenges ahead in putting a team on the field that can be a Grey Cup contender year in and year out.

That’s the first step. We continue to have to tackle the challenges of the southern Ontario market. We have all of our league partners behind us in terms of trying to develop strategies and marketing plans to build a stronger base than currently exists for the CFL and the Argonauts.

Will Jim Barker be both head coach and general manager next season?

Jim has certainly taken on a lot of duties this year. In addition to those jobs, he also provided a lot of support to a rookie defensive coordinator and got more actively involved in the offence in the latter weeks. All of those duties were far more than you can expect anybody to handle.

I certainly haven’t said he won’t have a dual role. In the event he does, we’re certainly going to have to provide him with the resources to do the job.

Who will make that decision?

First and foremost, it’s Jim’s decision on whether he wants both roles. Then it’s really a discussion between he and I as to whether it’s suitable for him to continue and, if he does have them, what’s needed to give him the best opportunity to do those jobs.

Are you still a firm backer of Jim Barker’s plan for this team?

Yes.

Are you concerned that a season like this will affect ticket sales for the Argos and the Grey Cup next year?

I don’t think it will impact the Grey Cup. The Grey Cup will be an asset for us. People are very obviously interested in attending that game and the only guaranteed route to the Grey Cup is being a season-ticket holder. We feel that’s a big sales feature for us.

… There’s no question that it’s a bit more challenging to sell season tickets when you’ve had a year like we had. It’s important for us to make some decisions in fairly short order, and at least send a message out as to what we anticipate and why people should believe in our team for next year.

What will that message be?

I don’t think we’ve finalized that yet. We’ve had a number of discussions. It’ll probably be post-Grey Cup before there’s any significant announcement.

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